Fate of Syrian Bishops Still Unknown

The Moscow Patriarchate continues not to dispose any data concerning the fate of the two Syrian bishops who were kidnapped by gunmen on April 22, 2013.

“Unfortunately, we do not have at our disposal any information about the luck of the two religious leaders kidnapped,” stated the secretary of the Department of External Church Relations and inter-orthodox relations, Father Igor Giakimtsouk to the news agency Interfax-Religia.

Earlier it was conveyed by a number of Russian and not only media that, according to unofficial information, Bishops Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Yohanna Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church were executed by insurgents, possibly even Chechens in origin, who fight as mercenaries on the side of the Syrian opposition.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated that it is making efforts to release the bishops and has repeatedly expressed its concern about the persecution religious minorities in Syria suffer, adding that Syria is one of the cradles of Christianity.